21 Savage: ‘It’s Hard Being Black’

“It’s hard being black,” 21 Savage remarked during a recent interview with Rolling Stone. The Atlanta rapper spoke about how before his career took off, he was “running around robbing n—– and shooting n—– and s—.” The rapper was also hit six times during a shooting that killed his friend on his 21st birthday.

This all changed when Atlanta producers Sonny Digital and Metro Boomin encouraged him to pursue a career in hip-hop.

“I don’t think people really understand how hard it is to be black,” he said. “Especially when you coming from nothing. In the hood, there’s already a lot of hate just amongst us black people. We killin’ each other and everybody else killin’ us too. We poor. And the world hates us.”

To all the haters who claim that the rapper doesn’t like to talk about this subject or criticize his rap as “mumble rap,” he said says he can “live with that.”

“Even if nobody keeps it real with me, just as long as I know in my heart I done kept it real with everybody, I can live with that,” he continued. “Even if I ain’t the famous-est, the richest, the best: As long as I know I kept it real and didn’t backstab nobody, I sleep good at night.”